I Love You Just Not Enough
by tatsulok
Summary: She told him that she loved him, He told her that it just wasn't enough... She's beginning to think he's right. Love's just not enough anymore. Peyton/multi-character friendship Peyton/? romance
1. Intro Letting Go

_"What am I gonna do?" She wondered, her head rested on his shoulder, their backs against the foot of the bed as they sat on the floor, his arms wrapped around her. He stared at the top of her head, her blonde curls the only thing he could see, the sound of her voice, broken and defeated seemed to echo throughout the silent room. She turned, lifting her head up to meet his eyes, and his heart broke for her. Her cheeks stained with dried tears that she had refused to wipe away, while more tears threatened to fall from her green eyes._

_"I don't know what to do without him."_

_She stared at him, lost and confused. And Nathan Scott never hated his brother more than he did at that moment._

_But he moved then, manuevering himself so that he was kneeling directly in front of her. He gave her a sad smile, lifting his hands to cup her cheeks and using his thumbs to wipe away her tears. His eyes never left hers. "You're going to let him go, Peyt. You're strong, you'll fight this and you'll win. You're going to live your dreams and you'll be happy, because you deserve to be. You had a life before Lucas, and you'll have a life after him, too. Okay?"_

_Peyton Sawyer smiled then, sure it was small and if he hadn't known her as long as he had he wouldn't be able to tell it was there._

_"Okay."_

_He released a breath he hadn't known he was holding, glad that he had gotten through to her. Realizing that he was afraid he wouldn't be able to._

_"Okay," he echoed, slipping his arms around her waist in a hug. He felt her arms snake around his neck and felt as her arms tightened; she was holding onto him for dear life._

_"You're going to get through this," he assured her, "and you're not going to be alone either, all right? I'll be there. We all will. You better believe that, Sawyer."_

_"I... I do, Nate. I really do."_

_He nodded, squeezing her just a little. "Good. Let's get you to bed, P."_


	2. Part One

_"What, was he born stupid? Dropped on his head way too many time as a child, maybe?"_

_"You too, huh?" He chuckled, moving across the room and settling down onto the couch, the television set turned on in the background. Grabbing the remote control, he began flipping mindlessly through the numerous channels, not actually paying attention to whatever was on._

_"He actually sent you an invitation?" The woman scoffed over the phone. "I understand that you're brothers, but you're hardly friends."_

_"Yeah, well, I don't understand a lot of things concerning the bastard."_

_She sighed. "Does she know?"_

_"What do you think?"_

_"Nathan-"_

_"He sent her an invitation, Brooke." Nathan Scott sighed, dropping the remote and running his free hand through his short hair. "It was in the mail this morning, addressed to her... I came straight here after finding mine- I kept hers and gave her the rest of her mail. I just... I couldn't let her see it."_

_"Look, Nate, we have to tell her."_

_"Four years, it's been four fucking years and she still hasn't gotten over him." He snapped into the phone. "We're leaving for Tree Hill in three days, Brooke. She's leaving her life in Los Angeles, which is a wonderful life, but you already know that, to move back to Tree Hill, where her life was nothing but heartache, disappointment, and memories of psycho-Derek, just to tell my ass of a brother that she's still in-love with him."_

_"Which is exactly why we have to tell her," Brooke insisted. "Nate, she's our best friend and we cannot let her go back to Tree Hill unprepared."_

_"If I have anything to do with it, she won't be going back to Tree Hill at all."_

_He blew out a breath of frustration. He didn't want to see his best friend hurt, once again, by the bastard-spawn known as Lucas Scott._

_"You care about P. Sawyer, I get that. I care about her, too, and I can give you a whole list naming the other people in her life who care about her as well. You are not the only person who wants to shield that girl from getting hurt, and you are certainly not that only person who wants to see her happy." Brooke informed him, her tone of voice telling him not to interrupt._

_"She survived the death of her mother, Anna, while her father chose his job over her. Sure, she absolutely adored Larry and understood that he was trying to give her a good life, to support her financially, but he wasn't there for her as he should have been, as a father, when she needed him the most... When she was shot in the leg he wasn't there to wonder where in the hell his only daughter was, and when she was left bleeding in the school library he wasn't tearing his hair out in worry for his daughter's safety. Instead, he had gotten a call from her, while she was still recovering in the hospital, and she lying to him when she said that she was fine._

_"Fast forward to the summer this woman, this stranger shows up out of the blue and tells her that she is her mother. After finally letting her into her life, she goes to see her only to find her dead, and once again she's left to survive yet another tragedy, the death of her birth mother, Ellie._

_"Next, she finds out that she has a brother. Finding the courage to call, she does so only to have him tell her not to call him again. But, only a few days after the call, there's another stranger waiting for her on her front porch, this time claiming to be her brother 'Derek', when in reality he's a total psycho, who had been stalking and taking pictures of her since stumbling upon her website and had been learning all there was to know about her through her podcasts. But, there is, at least, a happy ending to this story, even if it was a short one, the real Derek shows up and saves her from being a victim of rape. He stays long enough for her to stand again on her own and she almost believes that her motto, 'people always leave', doesn't always hold true, but, alas, he eventually leaves her after being called into duty._

_"Unfortunately for her, her troubles with 'Psycho-Derek' are not over and he returns, ruining things for her once again. Only this time, he's set on not only raping her, but he wants to kill her, too. She's tied and gagged in her basement, while everyone is out trying to enjoy Prom night. And, unlike the last time, her real brother wasn't there to save her. Fortunately, though, you and I were curious and worried enough to check up on her, even if we hadn't been the best of friends to her at that time._

_"Nathan, she has been through a lot of tragedies in her life. She was slipped a date-rape drug after your relationship with her ended for the final time, and she had actually turned to drugs as an escape from all of the disappointments in her life._

_"Aside from the death of her adoptive mother and her second dealings with 'Psycho-Derek', Lucas had been with her through everything. She has been in-love with him from the moment they first met, how can you expect for her to be over him when there was never any real closure to their relationship? He wrote a whole book about her, for God's sake."_

_"Because he left, all right, and now he's like every other son-of-a-bitch in Peyton's life."_

_"Sometimes they came back. We did, didn't we?"_

_"It's different, okay. It's different because he fucking proposed to her and when she didn't immediately say 'yes', he took her answer for a no and he just fucking left her. No goodbye, no explanation. He just split. And what kills me is that she actually blames herself, Brooke. She blames herself for telling him that she loved him and that she did want to marry him someday. She blames herself for not telling him 'yes'._

_"'Someday' is not a fucking 'no'!"_

_Nathan blinked at himself in surprise, realizing that he was actually yelling during his little speech. "Brooke, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled-"_

_"Apology accepted, but there was never really any need to do so. You just don't want her to get hurt, but Nathan, if we don't tell her and she finds out on her own, it won't only be Lucas hurting her, it'll be us, too."_

_"How do we tell her that the love of her life is getting married, without breaking her heart again, Brooke?"_

_"Lucas is getting married?"_


End file.
